Stay Alive (Stay Alive For Me)
by Hollyleaf The Black Cat
Summary: Just let her be okay, he silently pleads. Just let her be okay.


**Author's Note:** It's been a while since I've wrote anything so I'm trying to get back into a groove. I love Kerry and Cary's relationship and I just really felt like trying to write something for them because they need more love. Hope you all enjoyed and any feedback is much appreciated. The title for this fic comes from "Truce" by twenty one pilots.

* * *

He knows the second the bullet breaks her skin. A sharp pain comes over him and he clutches onto his chest, trying to put pressure on a wound that's not there. Losing control of his body, he staggers out of the elevator and falls to the floor.

The pain is intense; worse than it's ever felt before. But only half of his brain is focused on the pain; the other half is too busy praying to whatever higher power is out there to let her, Kerry, his other half, make it through this.

 _Just let her be okay_ , he silently pleads. _Just let her be okay._

Because he can't lose her.

Because without her, he's just a silly old man with no one to make laugh.

Because without her, he's just a mutant unable to defend himself in this war.

Because without her, he's nothing.

 **X**

When he finally gets himself together again, he stands on the deck watching anxiously for all of them to return. He can feel Melanie's gaze on his back as he waits. She's the one who found him lying on the floor, and when he explained the situation the worry visibly wash over her. He wants to think that its worry over all of them, and part of it probably is, but he knows that most of it is for David. He's supposed to be some sort of savior for them after all.

Cary wants to be able to say that he's worried about them all himself but he must admit that his mind is focused solely on Kerry. He's trying to stay calm, well, as calm as one can when their better half is injured and away. He's already prepared his lab to operate on her and now it's just a waiting game.

The thing about waiting though is that it gives him too much time to think. Too much time to run every possible scenario in his head, especially the bad ones. Her dying in the woods, her dying in his lab, her dying in his arms.

" _Don't leave me," he whispers to her lifeless body as it starts to fade away._

He doesn't think that her body will really fade away; it's more just a dramatic effort his mind's created. They've both discussed what will happen if the other was to die though. Neither know, nor want to find out, exactly what will happen but there are some unspoken conclusions they've reached. If he dies, being the main body, they both die. That's part of the reason she works so hard to protect him. If she dies, however, they assume that's just it: she dies. No effect on his life.

Well, that's not exactly true, he thinks. He may not physically die if she did but that's not to say her death wouldn't affect him. She's technically been a part of him forever but even more so since he found her playing with his train set that fateful Christmas morning. Now it's been almost 60 years since that day and he can't imagine going one more without her in it.

" _You're such an old man, now." She said it out of the blue one day. They were in his office, him working on a new machine, her punching away at a sandbag._

" _You're just as old," he began before glancing over at her, "You just don't look it."_

" _Or feel it," she said as she continued to deliver blows against the bag._

 _He just shook his head, an amused smile on his face. Ever since he started out aging her, she's loved to tease him about it._

 _But suddenly the conversation took a serious turn when she held the bag against her chest and whispered. "I hope you die of old age."_

 _To a normal person the statement would've been odd but he understood what she means completely. She didn't want him to die in this war that was coming and she'd do anything to make sure that didn't happen._

 _He gave her a soft smile before returning to his work. "So long as we're together…" He whispers it so quietly that she can't hear it over her beating the bag but he's sure that deep down she knows._

The memory makes him smile a sad smile and he goes back to staring at the woods. About that same time, he spots Sydney coming out of the woods, followed by David and Ptonomy who are carrying her.

He bolts down to meet them the second she comes into view.

 **X**

He patches up her wound and some of the swelling on her face goes down but she's still unresponsive and he's still nervous. He remains by her side, watching and waiting. He holds her hand as a gesture of comfort, for him or her he doesn't know which.

Melanie stops in to check on them but he can tell by the way she speaks that Kerry's well-being isn't the most pressing thing on her mind. She hesitates before she tells him but when she does he has to admit he's surprised: David's found Oliver in the Astral Plane.

Cary can see the desperate hope in her eyes as she says "He can bring him back. I know it."

He doesn't want to discourage her, especially since this is most hopeful she's been in years, but he himself can only be cautiously optimistic. He doesn't want to get his own hopes up that his friend will return to him.

He stares down at Kerry's unmoving body again. For now, he can only focus his all his hope into one miracle.

 **X**

It's hours later when she finally starts to stir. She groans in pain as she awakes and he gently places his hand on her shoulder to calm her.

"Hi," he whispers as she slowly opens her eyes.

She grins. "Miss me?"

He can't help but let out a small chuckle. _That shouldn't even be a question_ , he thinks. Because of course he's missed her. He hates being even a second without her. But he knows she knows that. So, he just replies with a simple "Yes."

Then he asks, "Are you ready?"

She gives him a soft nod and so he careful leans over her to absorb her. He can feel her becoming a part of him again, that euphoric feeling on becoming whole again, that is until the pain overwhelms him. He can feel the bruises coloring his face and the hole forming in his chest. It'll be a few weeks before he recovers fully; she'll, however, be completed healed the next time she come out. He's okay with that though.

He'll gladly take every wound she has so long as it keeps her by his side.

So long as she stays alive.


End file.
